Technology Lab —

Microsoft opens .NET Framework Library source code

Microsoft has opened the source code to the .NET Framework libraries under a …

Microsoft has opened the source code to the .NET Framework libraries under a read-only reference license. Developers who want to check out the source code need only upgrade to the newly released Visual Studio 2008 to gain access to it.

According to a Microsoft blog entry, the sources for the following libraries have been made available:

Additional framework libraries, such as LINQ, WCF and Workflow, are in the process of being added.

Microsoft tried to address the concerns of some over the potential impact of viewing the source. It has made a small change to the license to specifically call out that the license does not apply to users developing software for a non-Windows platform that has "the same or substantially the same features or functionality" as the .NET Framework

At the end of the day, the general manager of the Microsoft developer division, Scott Guthrie, sums it up:

Being able to step through and review the source should provide much better insight into how the .NET Framework libraries are implemented, and in turn enable you to build better applications and make even better use of them. Hope this helps,

Enabling the .Net Framework source access only takes a few minutes to setup. Detailed information covering the exact steps on how to enable this can be found here.